Cornerback is a critical position for success in today’s NFL. Teams that are wanting at this spot are usually going to get toasted by opponents who have any firepower at wide receiver and a competent quarterback. In the NFC South, that’s everybody.
The 2020 season is going to be a rough one for the Panthers for a lot of reason, but their lack of depth and inexperience at cornerback is probably at the top of the list. In addition to having to lean on unproven DBs or those trying to bounce back from bad seasons, they may be facing the most brutal string of oponents at wide receiver in the league this year.
Defensive coordinator Phil Snow knows he has his work cut out for him, but he has faith in his young corners. Here’s what he said about them earlier this week, per the official team website.
“If you look at how fast they are, and their size, they have talent. So it’s our job as coaches to get them to play at a level that we want them to play. That’s our job as coaches. We can use excuses and do all that stuff, but that’s not what Coach (Matt) Rhule’s about. When we get a player, we need to develop the player. And we picked these players for the most part. We picked Eli Apple, and you look at his size and speed, we expect him to play good.”
The most talented of this group is probably third-year corner Donte Jackson, who was benched late in the 2019 season. Snow shared some thoughts on No. 26 as well.
“First of all, Donte’s really tough for his size. He’s physical, which I love. In today’s football, everybody’s getting in the tight formations to run the football and make the corners tackle. He can do that. So I’m excited about that. You look at how well he runs — he has catch-up speed. The problem is, is he needs to get a little more detailed. We’ve talked to him about that, and with our DB coaches, they’re working well with him, and I think he’s got some real talent to him.”
It’s nice that Snow has faith in his guys, but every NFL cornerback has talent. They wouldn’t have made it this far without it. The challenge will be getting Jackson, Apple and rookie Troy Pride Jr. to live up to their potential.
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